Further Thought on Marriage and Living Together:

(This is part 2 of an STTA that began last week. If you didn't see that one, you may want to go back and read it . . . . )

Couples that choose to be sexually active and or live together before marriage will often cite their upcoming wedding as part of the justification for their current arrangement. A friend of mine asks them, "Why are you getting married?" In asking the question, my buddy, a fellow-pastor, does not mean the question in the way that usually illicits the answer, "Because we love each other." (Accompanied by sweet looks at one another.) Rather what he means is: "If what you are currently doing is OK then why bother to get married?" Or looked at from the other direction: "If your marriage will actually accomplish something, if it really has any meaning, then how can you justify your present status of acting married before you are?"
My friend's question and my follow-ups are queries that are looking for a logical response in a realm that is powered more by emotion and libido, than clear thinking. But clear thinking and commited obdedience are precisely what is needed to build the kind of marriages that we so desparately need in this world that is falling apart.
There was a time when much of Western Society supported a Biblical view of marriage--One Woman, One Man, for One Lifetime. For a time the church sought to stand against the erosion of respect for the Sanctity of Marriage. Now, in far too many cases, the church, if not part of the problem, is doing very little to solve it.
In counseling the Christians at Ephesus Paul said concerning the immoral works of those in the world around them:
"Do not be partakers with them.
"Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness.
"Instead even expose them."
It is difficult to tell people we love, who are in love, that what they are doing is wrong. To do otherwise, though, is not only wrong. It is not good for them.
It's STTA.